Free Republic

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) – Two workers were hospitalized after opening a package at John F. Kennedy International Airport Sunday, but the substance inside – initially feared to be nerve gas – turned out only to be beauty supplies. As CBS 2’s Steve Langford reported, it was a tense scene at the U.S. Postal Service facility at the eastern edge of the airport Sunday. Port Authority police, the FDNY, and an FBI hazardous response team all rushed to the scene after the workers reported feeling ill. In this post-9/11 world, authorities respond quickly and forcefully out of an abundance of caution,...

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg doesn’t just want to limit the use of cigarettes – but electronic cigarettes as well. In a newly leaked draft of three tobacco-related bills soon to be voted on by the NYC City Council, the new definition of “tobacco products” under city law would be changed to include e-cigarettes and related components, parts and accessories. If the ordinances pass, the display of e-cigarettes and smokeless tobacco would be banned in retail stores. Also, while tobacco and menthol flavored e-cigarettes would still be available in retail stores, all other flavored e-cigarettes could only be sold...

Memo to Charlie Rangel: You’re in some pretty uncharted waters if former Gov. David Paterson — son of one of your closest friends and allies — is publicly taking you to task for your racially charged remarks. The hoopla began with a Rangel slam against the Tea Party: “It is the same group we faced in the South with those white crackers and the dogs and the police,” the Harlem congressman told Politico. “They didn’t care about how they looked.” In other words, the Tea Partiers are the heirs of Bull Connor and the segregationists.

Late summer is peak Lyme disease season. As a result, Sen. Charles Schumer has urged the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study new and potentially fatal tick-borne illnesses.The New York Democrat has urged the CDC to look into two diseases that have already been found in the state.Schumer noted that New York City and on Long Island lead the state in Lyme disease infections. play Schumer Calls For More Research Into Tick-Borne DiseasesWCBS 880's Monica Miller Reports In addition to Lyme disease, ticks are known to carry Babesiosis, Powassan virus and Borrelia miyamotoi.Schumer said those diseases are...

‘Mad Men’ star John Slattery knocks Christine Quinn for mayor over Soho garage By KATE BRIQUELET Christine Quinn made him one Mad Man. Silver-maned “Mad Men” star John Slattery is coming out strong against the mayoral front-runner — all because she approved a 10-story sanitation garage in his Soho neighborhood five years ago. Slattery, 50, and other A-listers spent years campaigning against the city’s $400 million mega-garage on Spring Street near the West Side Highway. But when they presented an alternative plan at a City Council hearing, Quinn not only refused to consider it, she futzed around with her cellphone...

BREAKING NEWS: Two postal inspectors at JFK Airport sickened by nerve gas after opening package

The Talk Shows August 11th, 2013 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Reps. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, and Steve King, R-Iowa; Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.; Anu Bhagwati, executive director, Service Women's Action Network.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Reps. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., and Peter King, R-N.Y.; Michael Hayden, a former head of the CIA and the National Security Agency.THIS WEEK (ABC): Edward Snowden's father, Lon; Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J.; Reps. Ed Royce, R-Calif., Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, and Louie Gohmert, R-Texas; Donald Trump.STATE OF THE UNION (CNN):...

Maybe the DOT can write their bosses a late note. Commuters using the city’s bike-share program on its first workday ran into a slew of technical problems — and confusion — that made them tardy for their jobs. There were issues across the system, from Columbus Circle to Brooklyn Heights.

So what say we conduct the experiment that could – and I emphasize could here – finally settle the question once and for all. Let’s just nominate somebody who has welded on all three legs of the stool and leaves not a sliver of daylight for the squishiness question. A nominee who will state without ambiguity that we’re going to bomb the crap out of anyone who is actively working against our interests. One who flatly proclaims that there will be no abortions for anyone and new Supreme Court justices will be inclined to overturn Roe v Wade. They will...

Twin $50,000 donations were made to Andrew Cuomo’s campaign by two companies that have the same address as Extell Financial Services, which is part of Extell Development Co. — one of five developers to receive hefty tax relief thanks to a bill signed by the governor two days after the contributions. A top development company donated $100,000 to Gov. Cuomo just days before he signed a bill that quietly showered the firm with lucrative tax breaks. Two corporations tied to Extell Development each contributed $50,000 to Cuomo’s campaign, which recorded the checks on Jan. 28 — the same day the...

Sen. Mark Pryor gets an assist from Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand to save him from Bloomberg’s money, then cuts the ribbon at an ammunition factory. Gun control advocates are fine with the factory thing, but not Gillibrand’s money. Welcome to Arkansas 2014. WASHINGTON — Sen. Mark Pryor broke ground at an expanded Remington ammunition factory in his home state of Arkansas Thursday — a gun-friendly move by a gun-friendly Democrat. That’s not normally something that would make much news: Even ardent Democrats in Arkansas are firmly supportive of gun rights. But with pro-gun control Democrats coming to his aid, Pryor’s 2014...

Anthony Weiner’s campaign fund-raising has virtually dried up since revelations of a sexting relapse rocked his bid for mayor. Weiner received an average of just $1,897 a day in donations since the new sexting scandal erupted July 23, campaign finance records released Friday show. That’s a trickle of the $16,434 he received each day, on average, in the 50 days after launching his run for mayor on May 22. The records also show that Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin, collected no money on his behalf since the new sexting allegations emerged, after she collected nearly $150,000 in the first 50...

Larry Grathwohl, who had just come back to Cincinnati from Vietnam, was infiltrating the domestic terrorist group Weatherman, the only one to have done so. Larry saved potentially hundreds of lives when he alerted the FBI to a bomb placed near a Detroit police station and a restaurant. Bill Ayers, Education Secretary of Weatherman, told him that in the revolution, lives would have to be sacrificed. ... My interest in Bill Ayers began a few years ago when I learned about his career as a “Distinguished Professor of Education.” In reality he was working to destroy everything that was good...

A group of Woodland Park parents and educators want to get rid of the Common Core Academic Standards that are being implemented in Colorado Schools. Teller County Citizens Against Common Core Standards maintains the new academic guidelines aren't as good as the ones in place. It also argues that the system is unconstitutional because it takes local control away from school districts. It may lobby Woodland Park School District RE-2 and the state to drop out. "We want to get the word out. The standards were just a money carrot for the state to get federal money," ... Among other...

Just 31 percent of the state’s students in grades 3 to 8 were deemed proficient in math and in English language arts (ELA) on the new tests, compared with about 65 percent in math and 55 percent in ELA on last year’s tests. Kentucky, another leading-edge state implementing its own common core tests, experienced similar declines in scores last year. Most of the 45 states that have signed on to the Common Core are waiting until at least 2014-15 to implement common tests that are still in development. For those who support the Common Core, a set of standards for...

The misspelling of Jones Beach as “Jonse” on a new sign on Long Island's Robert Moses Parkway is making the rounds on social media. Jeena Belil, of Brookhaven, who saw the misspelled sign on Facebook, told Newsday she was shocked somebody didn't proofread the sign. …

As Anthony Weiner’s campaign New York mayoral campaign struggles in the wake of a sexting scandal, the candidate stirred some controversy on the other side of the Atlantic Thursday by mocking a British reporter’s accent in an interview. “It’s hard to take you seriously,” the 48-year-old Democrat told ITV’s Lucy Watson when she asked him about his motivations. In a follow-up, Watson asks if “anything [would] stop you?” “I just have a feeling I’ve, like, stepped into a Monty Python bit,” Weiner told her, laughing to himself. After posting the video, ITV called the exchange “the latest of a series...

Summer Reese, interim executive director of the Pacifica Radio Network, choked up as she announced this afternoon that legendary New York radio station WBAI was laying off its entire news department, and the majority of on-air talent, effective Monday. WBAI, the station where Pacifica's flagship program, Democracy NOW!, was founded, has broadcast on 99.5 since 1960. Andrew Phillips, former general manager of KPFA, Pacifica's Berkeley, California, station, has been appointed interim program director. The station's general manager, Berthold Reimers, and interim development director, Andrea Katz, will also stay on board. "Today I have concluded union negotiations with SAG-AFTRA, regarding proposed...

Has a corruption commission launched by New York governor Andrew Cuomo backfired on his political ambitions? The New York Daily News reports that Cuomo received two donations totaling $100,000 from a developer who stands to reap millions from a tax break signed by Cuomo — two days before he signed the bill: A top development company donated $100,000 to Gov. Cuomo just days before he signed a bill that quietly showered the firm with lucrative tax breaks.Two corporations tied to Extell Development each contributed $50,000 to Cuomo’s campaign, which recorded the checks on Jan. 28 — the same day the...

NEW YORK -- It was just a few minutes into Anthony Weiner's door-to-door canvass of a Harlem public housing complex Thursday night, and the New York City mayoral candidate was already agitated. As he scanned his staff-prepared list of apartment numbers and corresponding residents' names, the candidate shook his head in disapproval. "This is no good, the way you have this organized," he said to one of two young, female aides who were accompanying him. “This is N.G. -- not great.” A few minutes later, Weiner remained fixated on the quality of his staff’s advance work, voicing his displeasure in...